Tom Powers: Vikings defy logic, history. Is it karma? Finally?

Keep your heads up, Vikings fans. This year's team has plenty of karma as it tries to make the playoffs for the first time Brett Favre wrote another chapter in the team's book of championship futility. (Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin)

There may be forces at work here that are beyond our comprehension.

Remember Gary Anderson's missed field goal in the 1998 season NFC championship game? Twelve men in the huddle near the end of the 2009 season NFC championship game? Darrin Nelson failing to hold onto a pass at the goal line during the 1987 season NFC championship game?

It's supposed to be a given that, over time, the breaks always even out. And we've all heard the saying, "What goes around comes around."

Well, it might be coming around in Minnesota.

"The Karma Train! All aboard!" said punter Chris Kluwe.

Yes, it could be that Vikings fans finally are going to break even after all those terrible, unpredictable disappointments. We're not even going to think back to the Super Bowl losses or the 1975 "Hail Mary" push-off. Those are the troubles of an older generation of Vikings fans. And they dovetail seamlessly with the troubles of a younger generation of Vikings fans.

Perhaps this is payback time. Because it is clear that the Vikings shouldn't be where they are right now. This team was supposed to be riddled with holes during a rebuilding year. And, in fact, the team truly is riddled with holes. But at crucial moments, something good usually has happened.

Don't ask me how this secondary has held together. Or how the Vikings have been able to get here with a quarterback wearing training wheels. It defies logic. Maybe it is just their time.

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Maybe what has gone around actually is coming back around.

"That would be nice if it came around," Kluwe said. "That would be pretty sweet."

"You can feel it, man," said cornerback A.J. Jefferson. "It's just an energy trickling down to all the players."

It feels like something positive is going to happen instead of something just awful. Purple Nation may not be comfortable with that vibe. I've said it before, but Vikings fans are the new Red Sox fans. Many are engulfed in fatalism and perpetual despair. They are convinced that fate will deny them the ultimate prize. Hey, up to now they have been absolutely right, too.

But it's still kind of sad that some have not embraced this season for the miracle that it is, instead choosing to dwell on the deficiencies of quarterback Christian Ponder or the bread-and-butter play-calling or whatever. Look, with Percy Harvin out, there are no deep-threat receivers. The young quarterback often appears to be in way over his head. The secondary, already considered shaky, has been patched up and reconfigured numerous times. There is a rookie blind-side tackle.

There are all sorts of things wrong with this team, yet a victory over Green Bay puts the Vikings in the playoffs. It's as if the football gods are saying: "This is for the Whizzinator and the Love Boat and the Herschel Walker trade and all your troubles over the years. Have fun."

"I think this team believes," said fullback Jerome Felton. "We're all in. We know everybody picked us to get killed last week. But we went out and played good football. We're confident in ourselves."

Most of the guys know the history. They've heard all the stories. Even the newcomers can rattle off the particulars of Anderson's botched field goal and Brett Favre's errant throw after the too-many-men penalty. These things are famous all over and not just here on our humble tundra. Now it seems as if the team is at cosmic tipping point.

Surely a victory over the mighty Packers will demonstrate that there is something special in the air here.

"Everybody believes we have a chance to go all the way," Jefferson said.

It sounds silly to hear talk of the Vikings going all the way. But when you look back, weirder things have happened, all to the detriment of the Minnesota Vikings. How could Gary Anderson miss that field goal? That never should have happened. Nor should there have been 12 men in the Vikings' huddle after a timeout. That's crazy.

Kluwe is convinced he has spotted the Karma Train chugging through Minnesota. He could be right.